FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL–More than 10 million people entered the country illegally during the four years of the Biden administration, according to Customs and Border Protection. Now, members of Congress want to know how and why President Joe Biden allowed that to happen.
Beginning Tuesday, a House Homeland Security Committee subcommittee will hold the first in a series of hearings, “Consequences of Failure: How Biden’s Policies Fueled the Border Crisis.”
The hearings will examine the policies that led to the mass influx of illegal aliens across the southern border, Biden’s rescission of the first Trump administration’s border policies, and, in addition to what President Donald Trump has already done since returning to office, what policies are needed to further secure the border.
“After just two months in office, the Trump administration has restored law and order at our borders. But this victory, and the historic crisis that preceded it, did not happen overnight,” Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., told The Daily Signal. “There is no question that Joe Biden and his reckless administration created the worst border crisis in American history.”
“From unlawful mass-parole schemes at ports of entry and ‘catch-and-release’ between ports of entry to disempowering [Department of Homeland Security] law enforcement––every community in America faced the consequences of the Biden administration’s failures,” Guest said.
Shortly after taking office in 2021, Biden ended the Remain in Mexico policy, which Trump implemented under his first administration, requiring migrants to wait in Mexico for their asylum hearing court date. The “catch and release” of illegal aliens also resumed under the Biden administration. The Biden administration allowed for the mass parole of illegal aliens into the country through the CBP One mobile app and the parole program specifically for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.
Among the millions of illegal aliens who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, more than 662,000 had either already been convicted of a crime or faced pending criminal charges, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Republicans have pointed to Biden’s border policies for being responsible for the deaths of numerous Americans, including Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was killed in 2024 by an illegal alien from Venezuela.
“These failures took the lives of innocent Americans and led to the unimaginable abuse of vulnerable men, women, and children along their journey to our doorstep,” Guest said. “Instead of correcting course, Joe Biden and [DHS Secretary] Alejandro Mayorkas argued for four years that this was an unavoidable influx of global migration and that their hands were tied by a lack of congressional action and resources. However, it is abundantly clear the Biden border crisis was by design, not by accident.”
The increase of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. also created a financial burden on U.S. cities, especially those with so-called sanctuary policies, such as New York City.
According to New York City government data, more than 210,000 illegal aliens entered the city between the spring of 2022 and end of 2024. During fiscal year 2024, the Big Apple spent $3.75 billion on “asylum-seeker shelter and services,” with $1.31 billion covered by New York state.
Drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl, also increased under the Biden administration, according to CBP data. CBP seized more than 68,000 pounds of fentanyl at U.S. borders or ports of entry under the Biden administration, compared with about 20,000 pounds during the first Trump administration.
Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Tuesday’s hearing will be the first border security hearing of the 119th Congress.
Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, will testify alongside Ammon Blair, a senior fellow for the ‘Secure and Sovereign Texas’ initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Jon Anfinsen, president of the National Border Patrol Council’s Del Rio, Texas, chapter.
“As the Trump administration works tirelessly to clean up the mess of the last four years, we must remain clear-eyed about how we got here,” Guest said, adding, “so Congress can ensure it never happens again.”
